Qarnot Computing raises €6m Series B

A syndicate of investors including Banque des Territoires, Caisse des Dépôts, Engie Rassembleur d’Énergies, A/O PropTech, and Groupe Casino have invested €6 million in Qarnot Computing to support its future growth.

Qarnot offers climate-conscious, high performance cloud computing – by selling cloud computing capacity to clients and uses the wasted heat generated from its computer servers to heat buildings and water sustainably.

Data centres – that are mostly owned by ‘Big Tech’ companies – consumed about 3% of the world’s total energy supply in 2018, equivalent to the global airline industry. Demand for computing capacity is growing at a double digit rate even as it contributes to climate change.

This recent funding follows a period of intense product development and sales activity, resulting in Qarnot doubling it’s turnover for the past two years. In 2018 and 2019, Qarnot has significantly accelerated its R&D activity and ambitions for tackling climate change.

The €6 million investment will enable Qarnot to become the European leader in high performance computing (HPC).

With the support of the syndicate of its investment partner, Qarnot can continue to accelerate the growth and diversification of its customer base.

Qarnot will continue to focus on its in-house R&D, which will be consolidated to ensure the company maintains its technological lead in the market. This will be achieved through an ambitious recruitment plan, with a particular focus on IT and commercial roles.

Paul Benoit, President of Qarnot Computing said: “This fundraising will enable us to take another step forward and accelerate our growth around our range of products and services that are already recognised and in-demand”.

“Our new investors share Qarnot’s vision, focusing on the highly strategic sectors of high-performance computing and energy efficiency in buildings. We look forward to working together, with the same values and the same desire!”

Othmane Zrikem, Chief Data Officer, A/O PropTech added: “Qarnot uses energy to run high performance computing (HPC) while leveraging the heat generated by microchips to heat residential units and sanitised water in commercial buildings. It reduces the CO2 footprint of computer servers by 78% compared to traditional data centre solutions.

“At A/O PropTech, we are looking to invest in companies that intersect climate-tech and proptech. In other words, companies enabling the decarbonisation of the real estate industry, of which Qarnot is an excellent example.”